Renewable energy: Texas schools in top spots
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Green power comes from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas and low-impact hydropower. The electricity it produces does not generate as much pollution as conventional power and produces no net increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
The Austin ISD's top ranking is a result of green power representing 39 percent of the district's total electric use. The district's annual green power usage is 65.64 million kWh and includes energy from biogas and wind.
Round Rock ISD's second place ranking was a result of it using green power for 25 percent of its total electric use. The district annually uses 16,996,468 kWh of green energy from biogas and wind.
Pflugerville ISD's use of 8 percent green power in its total electric use earned it 12th place. The district uses 996,000 kWh annually, from biogas and wind. Austin Energy is the supplier of electric power for all three of the school districts.
Rounding out the top five on the list of green power users was Rochester City School District in New York in third place, where green power accounts for 18 percent of its total electric use. It was followed by Bullis School in Maryland in fourth, which uses 100 percent green power for energy (but only uses 3.4 million kWh annually) and The Dalton School in New York in fifth where it also uses 100 percent green power but only uses 2.53 million kWh annually.
In the local government rankings, Texas again captured the top two spots, Houston in first, with 34 percent of its energy usage from wind power. Annual green power usage for the city is 438 million kWh. Dallas was in second place with 40 percent of its energy usage from renewables. The city annually uses 333,659, 830 kWh of green power. Austin ranked ninth, boasting 14 percent of its energy usage from renewables. The city uses 62,466,303 kWh per year. The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport ranked 11th with 52.5 million kWh. Its green energy usage was 18 percent of its total power usage, all from wind.
All of Houston and Dallas' green power comes from wind while Austin's is from biogas and wind.
The Texas A&M University System was the only Texas institution in the top 20 colleges and universities. The System ranked sixth, producing 15 percent of its energy usage from renewables. The System uses 43.35 million kWh per year.
